The Talking Book is a collaboration between Bill Gould, of Faith No More, and Jared Blum, a sound artist who works under the name “Blanketshipâ€. This disc bears no resemblance to Gould’ previous musical outings; rather, it is laden with dark ambiences and instrumental passages.
Koolarrow Records, which released The Talking Book and is also run by Gould, states the album “is a record of visuals – the chapters written are aural descriptors of a people and place left behind…â€. The music on this disc reinforces this fact quite heavily; Gould and Blum’ treatment of sound conjures distorted sepia tone imagery of a bygone era, be it through warbled haunted piano and guitar melodies or excessive vinyl pop and crackle.
Most of the tracks on The Talking Book find Gould and Blum sculpting dense dronescapes; sometimes though, the formulaic use of reverb to saturate the sounds within the stereo field can become a bit generic and monotonous. The standout moments on this album break this mould though, “Sundown’ for instance begins, and builds upon, a twang driven guitar phrase which could have been penned for one of Sergio Leone’ spaghetti westerns. Elsewhere, “Notes from the Field’ is injected with a similar Morricone-esque guitar line that builds into a mechanical waltz, whilst “The Fallen’ is an 11-minute episodic epic that shifts sensitively through lush, pristine guitar progressions, haunting tribal singing, cluttered minimalist percussion, and detailed ambient segments.
The standout out moments on this album far outweighs the generic passages that Gould and Blum sometimes lapse into. Furthermore, the concept that runs through all of the music on The Talking Book is well-executed and realised by the artists. I look forward to hearing the duo refine their craft on future releases.
Luke Bozzetto
